Italy's football bosses take to name-calling over virus

Italy's football schedule has been thrown into disarray by the new coronavirus and its bosses are taking out their frustrations via social media and calling each other names.

The football-mad Mediterranean country has borne the European brunt of the COVID-19 disease now sweeping across much of the world.

More than 2,000 people have tested positive and 52 have died from the virus in Italy since February 22.

The big problem for football is that the Italian epicentre of the outbreak is in the northern part of the country where many of the big teams play.

Milan's Lombardy region has recorded 38 deaths and its western neighbour Piedmont -- home to Cristiano Ronaldo's Juventus -- has also been heavily hit.

Now the bosses of Inter Milan are lashing out at league president Paolo Dal Pino for what they view as completely random scheduling decisions that favour specific teams.

Inter's Chinese chairman Steven Zhang posted a somewhat extraordinary missive on his verified Instagram account Tuesday calling Dal Pino a "clown".

"Playing around (with) the calendar and always putting the public health as secondary consideration," Zhang wrote in English.

"You are probably the biggest and darkest clown I have ever seen." Zhang then posted what a "face vomiting" emoji to illustrate the strength of his feelings about Dal Pino's scheduling moves.

"How about we don't protect our players or coaches and ask them to play for you 24/7 nonstop?" he somewhat rhetorically asked.

"Yes, I am speaking at you. Our Lega President #PauloDalPino! #shameonyou." -
'Playground squabbling' -
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